AL not fully satisfied with Aug 21 attack verdict: Quader

Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader has said their party is not fully satisfied with the verdict of the August 21 grenade attack cases as the mastermind of the incident and BNP leader Tarique Rahman was not given death sentence.

"Though delayed, we aren't unhappy with the verdict. We aren't fully satisfied as the planner and mastermind (Tarique Rahman) of the grenade attack was not given the capital punishment," he said.

The ruling party leader came up with the remarks while talking to reporters at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka after the pronouncement of the verdict of 21-August grenade attack cases, reports UNB.

Quader, also the Road Transport and Bridges Minister, said the prime target of the brutal attack was Bangabandhu's daughter Sheikh Hasina, the then opposition leader and the current Prime Minister.

"The country's people know it very well who was the planner and mastermind of the carnage. It's now true as the daylight," he added.

During the Khaleda Zia-led government, the minister said Hawa Bhaban was an alternative 'powerhouse'.

He said executed militant leader Mufti Hannan made a confessional statement that Tarique Rahman's permission had been taken before launching the attack.

Recalling the killing of 24 people in the attack, Quader said the then government was not at all concerned over the brutal carnage as it destroyed all the evidence of the cases. The FBI was not allowed to investigate the incident while Scotland Yard was prevented from coming to Bangladesh."

He said the then government also tried to divert the cases into a different direction by making a cooked-up story of Joj Mia.

Earlier in the morning, a speedy trial tribunal sentenced 19 people to death and 19 others, including BNP acting Chairman Tarique Rahman to life imprisonment, in two cases filed over the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally in the capital in 2004.